Hundred Dollar Healey

[M_and_P]

Thought I would start a thread to follow along the build of our vintage race inspired Sprite Project. The goal of this is to show case that you can still build a cool classic car on a budget. The car is the feature project on our site www.thegentlemanracer.com

This is how we found the car, no engine, no front sheet metal, no seats, etc... for $100 you can't ask for much.

 

[M_and_P]

Fiberglass Front end

We picked the front end up for $300 bucks and the roll bar from the local Pick-A-Part for $20 bucks, the aluminum racing seat was $40 bucks at the Pomona Swapmeet but we are not going to use it in the car.

 

[M_and_P]

Body work starting...

 

[M_and_P]

First coat of primer and now the detail bodywork will start, a little bit of filler and lot of hammering to get it all straight.

So far we are in the project around $500 bucks.

 

[M_and_P]

So up until now the front bonnet has just been sitting on the body while I have been looking for an alternative to gate hinges and epoxy that is used by most people. There is nothing wrong with that but I wanted something a little more substantial. The solution came from a wondering a junk yard, where I found some great hinges from a BMW 3-series trunk that I was able to modify slightly to work. The best part is the two stage settings. With the tires on because of the curve of the body I had to limit the hood to open about 75% of the way. However, with the wheels off it allows the hood to tilt completely up and out of the way... you could pull the motor if you wanted without having to remove the bonnet. (We checked because we were test fitting the engine and trans)

 

[M_and_P]

Picked up some Cobra style bucket seats for the car at the local Pick-A-Part for $20 each. Going to have to completely recover them but its cool.

What the bonnet looked like back in the day, we wont be adding the bumper...

 

[aeronca65t]

Nice! Keep up the good work!

I love "budget builds".
My #909 race car is based on a $200 tub I bought 15 years ago.

I just built a budget street Spridget based on a parts car that I had purchased just for the 1275 engine (for another project).
Instead of junking the parts car, I decided to "save" it by using all the unwanted spare parts I had laying around.
The car needed seats, an engine, tires, electrical work, one fender, a top plus lots of odds & ends.
The engine was an unwanted 35 HP 948 cc Austin sedan engine. I had a spare transmission (with noisy reverse gear) plus all the other stuff (except tires). Paint went on with a roller.

In the end, I think I have less than $400 in mine. Runs great! It's slow but fun!